


“I love you because you’re nothing like me”

by idk_books



Category: One Day at a Time (TV 2017)
Genre: Bedrooms, College, F/F, Fluff, Interrupted, Nervousness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:13:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28452930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idk_books/pseuds/idk_books
Summary: Syd and Elena are thoroughly engrossed in college applications but Syd worries that their less than lofty aspirations will prove to be a huge disappointment to their girlfriend.
Relationships: Elena Alvarez/Syd
Comments: 2
Kudos: 37





	“I love you because you’re nothing like me”

**Author's Note:**

> This is my somewhat pathetic attempt and trying to cope with the cancellation of this incredible show.   
> My apologies to the American education system - which I don't know much of - as I've probably completely misrepresented it...

Syd’s girlfriend was smart. Super hecking smart. In contrast, Syd just did their best but even years of personalised individual tuition courtesy of her parents’ home school still had her lagging far behind Elena. They tried their hardest to keep pace with her fast paced rants on whatever current affair irked her the most but found that their contribution was often reduced to merely smiling and nodding.

They mostly managed to not feel too inadequate or to draw unnecessary comparisons but it was hard not to when your girlfriend seemed destined for The White House and you technically never even passed Kindergarten. To her credit, Elena never said anything, never let on that she thought Syd anything other than incredible. When Syd felt brave enough to ask for clarification or for more information, Elena proved herself a more than able teacher but Syd was sure to choose their moments. They kept count of the questions they’d asked to be sure that they hadn’t asked too many and given the game away.

When college application season came around, Syd held their breath. They knew they were never destined for anything other than community college but Elena talked of nothing but Ivy League. Syd was studying day and night for the G.E.D and cramming for the SAT as Elena was seemingly A.P. in everything. Any time they had together now seemed dedicated to planning for their futures which seemed to be heading in increasingly different directions although neither of them really had the courage to voice this. Dates that once consisted of trips to Benihana and video game tournaments now seemed to revolve exclusively around sitting at the Alvarez’s dining table and sifting through mountains of sheets of paper and today seemed to be no different.

“I think I’ve settled on Yale,” Elena announced, slapping with absolute finality on the dining room table, her hands either side of her stack of paper. Syd was sat beside her staring at their slightly smaller pile.

“Finally!” Alex groaned from the sofa. He’d been unceremoniously kicked away from the table to make way for college prep and was making no attempt at hiding his bitterness.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Elena asked folding her arms defensively and turning to face him.

“Oh nothing,” Alex shook his head sarcastically, “Just that you’ve been going on about colleges since middle school. Constantly switching between all of the Ivy League schools. I’m just happy it’s finally come to an end.”

“You’re just jealous because you’ve never made a single plan for your future,” Elena retorted.

“Well you’re just pinning everything on one school that you might not even get in to,” Alex fired back immediately.

Syd watched, panicked, as Elena’s face paled in shock then flushed red with anger as she launched herself at her brother. They hesitantly pushed their chair back, considering trying to intervene as Elena pummelled Alex with a cushion. Thankfully all it took to break apart the siblings was a, “Hey!” from Penelope as she came in, weary from a nursing shift, through the front door. Elena and Alex stumbled sheepishly to their feet, and stared at the ground, the ceiling, anywhere but their mom.

“Maybe I should go,” Syd mumbled, sliding their bag onto their shoulder.

“No!” Elena exclaimed.

“Maybe you should…” Penelope had begun at the same time as Elena’s outburst, “Ok. Syd,” she relented, “Why don’t you go and wait in Elena’s room whilst I deal with these infants,” she glared furiously at her children.

They gathered up their share of the paperwork and headed down the hall to Elena’s room, followed by the sound of Penelope building to an absolute crescendo as she let Elena and Alex know exactly how she felt about seeing them fight. Again. Syd closed the door.It was the first time they’d been in Elena’s room with the door closed without feeling terrified yet aroused. Penelope Alvarez was very clear on bedroom etiquette and expectations. The room was neat to the point of being meticulous and as familiar to them as their own. In over a year of dating, Elena had never been in Syd’s room. This wasn’t by chance. Having seen Elena’s room - a shrine of neatness and intersectional feminism - Syd had vowed that Elena would never see theirs. No matter how hard they tried, they could never get it organised. Clothes seemed to crawl out of the wardrobe and drape themselves all across the floor and they felt unable to part with all of the stuffed toys they’d had since they were a kid.

Syd started to pick through the pile of unfinished college applications, feeling queasy at how frequently the phrase ‘low academic expectations’ appeared. They were immensely relieved that they’d decided not to break up when they went to college but now it meant really having to try hard to play catch up. They were no longer going to be able to keep their final college destination secret. Elena was going to know because Elena was going to visit and they were going to have to visit Yale and watch Elena try very hard to not be embarrassed of them. The ferocity and velocity of these thoughts knocked them off centre and made Syd wish they’d stuck with the agreement.

“Well Alex is a jerk!” Elena had burst in through the door and interrupted Syd’s maudlin introspection by flopping onto the bed.

“It was a bit of a low blow,” Syd said, reaching for Elena’s hand, “but you got him good with that pillow.”

“Yeah,” Elena shrugged and sat up, “so where are you at with all these applications?”

“Uh, getting there. In fact, I think we’ve been doing such a great job that we deserve a break,” Syd grinned shyly and slid their hand up Elena’s thigh.

“Oh really,” Elena said, raising an eyebrow, “what did you have in mind?”

“I don’t know,” Syd replied coyly leaning in, “something like this?” and their lips locked and their arms entwined around each other. Elena leaned back onto the bed and Syd followed until they were straddling her. Elena’s hand was trying to untuck Syd’s shirt when she froze, her body suddenly rigid underneath them.

“You know, having the door open is supposed to be a deterrent, not an opportunity for you to have an audience,” Penelope said from the open doorway. Syd sat up, very aware that they were still straddling Elena. They felt that moving - even to dismount - would make it even more obvious to Penelope what was going on. “I think it’s time you two just stuck to the living room. Alex is with Nora, your Abuelita is with Dr B and I’m gonna take a bath. But leave room for Jesus out there,” she wagged a finger at them and spun out of the room.

“Oh, god,” Elena moaned, clasping her hands to her face. Syd peeled themselves off as her body relaxed underneath them.

“I guess I forgot about the door. And your mom being home,” Syd grinned hesitantly, “At least it wasn’t Lydia.”

“Don’t even!” Elena said, her hands still on her face.

“Your mom was pretty cool, considering.”

“I guess,” Elena admitted, removing her hands from her face and sitting up. “I mean she knows we’ve had sex. It just feels weird knowing she’s pretty much got visual evidence of it.”

Syd moved to climb of the bed, “Maybe I should just go.”

“No!” Elena grabbed for their hands, “let’s just go back to the living room. We’ve still got college stuff to go through,” Syd’s heart sank as they heard this, “and I know where Alex and Abuelita hide the good cookies.”

“Fine. You’ve convinced me,” Syd conceded and they followed Elena and her pile of paperwork back to the dining table. She arranged the papers neatly on the table before rummaging in the bottom of the bureau and presenting Syd with an unopened cookie tin.

“If Alex or my Abuelita ask you about this, you know nothing,” Elena said conspiratorially, “Although, aren’t your parents out of town right now? Couldn’t we head to your place?”

“Uh… They are…” Syd said hesitantly, “but we’re here now. The bus’ll take at least an hour. And we have cookies.”

“That’s true. And we do need to sort out all this college stuff,” Elena sat down, “You still haven’t told me where’s on your short list.”

“About that…”

“If you haven’t got one, we could go through them all together and narrow it down. And whilst it would be great to have you in New Haven with me, I want you to know that you can go anywhere you want,” she squeezed their hand, “Wherever you are and wherever I am, we’ll make it work. So where have you got so far?”

Syd wordlessly pushed their sheaf of paper towards Elena and shoved a handful of cookies in their mouth to delay having to answer the inevitable questions. Elena read them carefully, her brow slightly furrowed as she looked through the various application forms that were a thousand miles away from Ivy League in more ways than one.

“Ok, so how do you want to do this?” Elena asked as she set the papers down at last.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, how are we going to start narrowing it down? Location? Price? Courses?”

“Uh?”

“I mean I’m secretly hoping you’ll do it by location and we can eliminate all of these West Coast Schools but really, it’s up to you.”

“You mean,” Syd said slowly, “you’re not going to say anything about how none of these schools are Ivy League, that I’m being very unambitious?”

“Why would I say any of those things?” Elena said, reaching for their hand again, “It’s your future. You know what you want and I trust you to make the right decisions for yourself.”

“Because,” Syd began, staring into their lap, “you know I’m not smart like you. And I’m scared you have this whole fantasy of us going to college together because it’s never going to happen. Unless you’re willing to seriously dumb yourself down which is the last thing I want,” their voice was shaking as they spoke.

“Hey,” Elena said gently, lifting Syd’s head so their eyes met, “is this why you’ve been acting so weird?”

“I have?”

“Yeah,” Elena smiled, “every time college comes up, you’ve gone all quiet and you try to go home. I just thought you were worried in general. I didn’t realise it was because of me.”

“It’s not just because of you,” Syd said, trying to break contact with Elena’s patient gaze, “I just never found school easy that way that you did. It’s why my parents pulled me out. So I could have more support. I like learning. It just doesn’t stick in the way that it does with you. I should get my G.E.D. but my scores are never going to be anywhere close to yours.”

“Syd! I love you!” Elena smiled, pulling them close to their foreheads touched, “And I love you because of how kind and funny and beautiful you are, not because of some numbers on an arbitrary piece of paper.”

Syd smiled at last, “Oh,” they breathed, “because I love how smart you are. But it’s always been kinda intimidating. And I’ve been so scared that you’ll notice how hard it is to keep up.”

“Why didn’t you tell me this?”

“Because I wanted you to think I could be your equal.”

“Oh Syd. You’re not my equal. You’re my better,” she said, gently wiping the tears that had started to fall down Syd’s face. “so do you maybe want to put a pin in all of this and go to your place? We’ve been dating for over a year and I still haven’t seen your room.”

“It’s not quite the haven of intellectualism that yours is.”

“So?”

“It’s just… I’ve always felt that you had particular standards and, well, my room wouldn’t quite meet them.”

“Syd. My room’s only the way that it is because of Abuelita. She has a real complex about keeping things clean.” She stroked Syd’s cheek, “I don’t care what your room looks like. The only thing I’ve ever been interested in is whether or not your parents are home.”

They both giggled, their foreheads resting against each other.

“Syd,” Elena continued, “I love you because you’re not me. I’ve never wanted you to be me. I’ve just wanted you to be you because you’re perfect just as you are.”

“And you’re perfect to me.”

“So do you think we can head to your place now? All these applications can wait…”


End file.
